June 2011

strawberries and cream: recipes to use up the harvest

When we go strawberry picking, our favorite way to eat the berries we've brought home is with maple whipped cream made from scratch. Our lightly sweetened whipped cream recipe compliments the bursting juiciness of the sweet, just-picked berries. Perfectly ripe, because we just hand-picked them together ourselves.

Of course, when we pick our own berries, we come home with so very many berries. And so, we have homemade whipped cream and strawberries with cake (above), whipped fresh cream and strawberries on pancakes, whipped cream and strawberries on shortcake...whipped cream and strawberries in our berry sweet dreams.

traditional whipped cream (makes about 2 cups)

1 cup chilled heavy cream or whipping cream

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

1 tablespoon confectioners' (powdered) sugar

Chill cream and bowl before whipping. For a quick chill, I place both our cream and glass quart jar* in the freezer for 20-30 minutes. Whip cream with a hand blender in a quart jar, like we do, or a stand mixer until cream just begins to thicken. Add extract and sugar. Continue whipping until a soft peak forms when you pull your hand blender (or a spoon you have dipped in after you have turned off your stand mixer) out of the whipping cream. This little mountain of cream should curl over gently at the top. Important: Stop to check cream often. Our cream whips up in less than 2 minutes with our hand blender. Whip too long and you will have lumps, then butter. *Mix, serve, and store in the same jar: I like our jar method, because it is pretty to serve the cream right in the same jar the cream is mixed in. It is also easy to store left overs in the fridge after putting a lid on the jar. Less mess. Just one container to clean.

fun for kids: cream can be put in smaller jars with lids and children can shake the cream into whipped cream themselves.

Beat cold heavy whipping cream in a chilled bowl. When almost finished whipping, sweeten with maple syrup to taste. Start with 1 tablespoon per cup, for a lightly sweetened cream. Add more if desired. Using Grade B syrup, which has a darker color, will add a more robust maple flavor. Pretty and delicious on fresh strawberries, blackberries, raspberries or blueberries—our kids love this healthy treat. Serve on our fluffy whole wheat buttermilk pancakes, waffles, french toast, strawberry shortcake and other desserts.

easy one bowl strawberry and cream cake

We adapted our cake recipe from one circa 1940. It's fun eating retro! This cake is moist and thick like a pound cake. This one bowl recipe makes clean up a breeze too.

3 cups flour or whole wheat pastry flour*

2 cups sugar

2 teaspoons baking soda

1 cup melted butter

2 cups buttermilk

2 eggs

2 teaspoons vanilla

optional: strawberries and sugar for swirl, and strawberries and whipped cream (recipes above) for topping

Whisk together dry ingredients. Make hole in the middle. Add wet ingredients into the hole in the middle of the dry, and whisk just the wet ingredients until eggs are mixed up. Gently fold wet into dry. Grease a cake pan (we used a budnt pan). Pour into a cake pan**. Our bundt pan took 45 minutes to bake in our oven. Check for doneness with a cake tester, knife or skewer after 40 minutes as cooking times vary with the type of cake pan you choose to use. Remove cake from pan when it has cooled and pulled away from the sides of the pan. Gently loosen any parts of the cake still stuck to the pan with a knife then turn upside down onto a cake stand or cake plate. We happen to have an antique retro cake plate and cover that fit with our 1940's cake perfectly. Serve with fresh strawberries and whipped cream or dust with powdered sugar sifted over the top if you wish.

*We used whole wheat pastry flour. Whole wheat pastry flour can be used instead of white flour in this recipe if you typically bake with whole grains. Whole wheat pastry flour has a lighter texture than regular whole wheat flour because it is made from a different type of wheat and can be used in place of white flour in all recipes that do not use yeast as a leavening.

**Want to add a swirl inside your cake like ours? We cooked a cup of fresh strawberries (to use up more of our strawberry harvest!) until it thickened, then stirred in 3 tablespoons sugar. We poured this over the batter, after the batter was in our cake pan. Because our sweetened strawberry mixture was heavier than the batter, it sunk in and made pretty swirled patterns. A fun surprise when the cake is cut.

Comments

strawberries and cream: recipes to use up the harvest

When we go strawberry picking, our favorite way to eat the berries we've brought home is with maple whipped cream made from scratch. Our lightly sweetened whipped cream recipe compliments the bursting juiciness of the sweet, just-picked berries. Perfectly ripe, because we just hand-picked them together ourselves.

Of course, when we pick our own berries, we come home with so very many berries. And so, we have homemade whipped cream and strawberries with cake (above), whipped fresh cream and strawberries on pancakes, whipped cream and strawberries on shortcake...whipped cream and strawberries in our berry sweet dreams.

traditional whipped cream (makes about 2 cups)

1 cup chilled heavy cream or whipping cream

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

1 tablespoon confectioners' (powdered) sugar

Chill cream and bowl before whipping. For a quick chill, I place both our cream and glass quart jar* in the freezer for 20-30 minutes. Whip cream with a hand blender in a quart jar, like we do, or a stand mixer until cream just begins to thicken. Add extract and sugar. Continue whipping until a soft peak forms when you pull your hand blender (or a spoon you have dipped in after you have turned off your stand mixer) out of the whipping cream. This little mountain of cream should curl over gently at the top. Important: Stop to check cream often. Our cream whips up in less than 2 minutes with our hand blender. Whip too long and you will have lumps, then butter. *Mix, serve, and store in the same jar: I like our jar method, because it is pretty to serve the cream right in the same jar the cream is mixed in. It is also easy to store left overs in the fridge after putting a lid on the jar. Less mess. Just one container to clean.

fun for kids: cream can be put in smaller jars with lids and children can shake the cream into whipped cream themselves.

Beat cold heavy whipping cream in a chilled bowl. When almost finished whipping, sweeten with maple syrup to taste. Start with 1 tablespoon per cup, for a lightly sweetened cream. Add more if desired. Using Grade B syrup, which has a darker color, will add a more robust maple flavor. Pretty and delicious on fresh strawberries, blackberries, raspberries or blueberries—our kids love this healthy treat. Serve on our fluffy whole wheat buttermilk pancakes, waffles, french toast, strawberry shortcake and other desserts.

easy one bowl strawberry and cream cake

We adapted our cake recipe from one circa 1940. It's fun eating retro! This cake is moist and thick like a pound cake. This one bowl recipe makes clean up a breeze too.

3 cups flour or whole wheat pastry flour*

2 cups sugar

2 teaspoons baking soda

1 cup melted butter

2 cups buttermilk

2 eggs

2 teaspoons vanilla

optional: strawberries and sugar for swirl, and strawberries and whipped cream (recipes above) for topping

Whisk together dry ingredients. Make hole in the middle. Add wet ingredients into the hole in the middle of the dry, and whisk just the wet ingredients until eggs are mixed up. Gently fold wet into dry. Grease a cake pan (we used a budnt pan). Pour into a cake pan**. Our bundt pan took 45 minutes to bake in our oven. Check for doneness with a cake tester, knife or skewer after 40 minutes as cooking times vary with the type of cake pan you choose to use. Remove cake from pan when it has cooled and pulled away from the sides of the pan. Gently loosen any parts of the cake still stuck to the pan with a knife then turn upside down onto a cake stand or cake plate. We happen to have an antique retro cake plate and cover that fit with our 1940's cake perfectly. Serve with fresh strawberries and whipped cream or dust with powdered sugar sifted over the top if you wish.

*We used whole wheat pastry flour. Whole wheat pastry flour can be used instead of white flour in this recipe if you typically bake with whole grains. Whole wheat pastry flour has a lighter texture than regular whole wheat flour because it is made from a different type of wheat and can be used in place of white flour in all recipes that do not use yeast as a leavening.

**Want to add a swirl inside your cake like ours? We cooked a cup of fresh strawberries (to use up more of our strawberry harvest!) until it thickened, then stirred in 3 tablespoons sugar. We poured this over the batter, after the batter was in our cake pan. Because our sweetened strawberry mixture was heavier than the batter, it sunk in and made pretty swirled patterns. A fun surprise when the cake is cut.